Integrated Net-Zero Energy Design for Hot-Dry Institutional Buildings: A Scenario-Based Energy, Carbon and Cost Assessment for Jaipur, India

Agrawal, Hemant Kumar; Yadav, Anshika; Luhania, Ashutosh

doi:https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i7.224

Volume 02, Issue 7

Published on: July 2026

INTEGRATED NET-ZERO ENERGY DESIGN FOR HOT-DRY INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS: A SCENARIO-BASED ENERGY, CARBON AND COST ASSESSMENT FOR JAIPUR, INDIA

Hemant Kumar Agrawal Anshika Yadav Ashutosh Luhania

Jagannath University , Jaipur , Rajasthan , India

DOI:https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i7.224

Article Status

Plagiarism Passed Peer Reviewed Open Access

Available Documents

Download PDF Review Report

Abstract

Net-zero-energy buildings in hot-dry regions must reconcile high cooling demand, limited roof area, grid interaction, embodied carbon and investment constraints. This study develops an integrated design-stage assessment for a four-storey, 6,000 m² institutional building in Jaipur, India. The baseline is aligned with the Energy Conservation and Sustainable Building Code 2024, while the proposed case combines east–west massing, solar control, improved opaque-envelope performance, high-performance glazing, daylight-linked LED lighting, efficient variable-refrigerant-flow cooling, demand-controlled ventilation, plug-load management and a 235 kWp rooftop photovoltaic system. A transparent monthly/end-use energy model is linked to annual and representative hourly energy-balance checks, an A1–A5 embodied-carbon inventory, a 60-year operational carbon model, a 25-year discounted cash-flow analysis and a 5,000-run Monte Carlo uncertainty assessment. The modeled annual site energy decreases from 748.8 to 375.0 MWh, equivalent to an EUI reduction from 124.8 to 62.5 kWh/m²·year. PV generation is 385.4 MWh/year, producing an annual surplus of 10.4 MWh; however, only 68.2% of PV electricity is used directly, so the building still imports 112.3 MWh and exports 122.7 MWh. Upfront embodied carbon falls from 4,030 to 3,050 tCO₂e despite the PV addition, primarily through lower-carbon concrete and recycled-content steel. Under a 2.5% annual grid-decarbonization trajectory, whole-life carbon falls by 73–86%, depending on whether exported electricity is credited. The ₹31.9 million incremental investment has a 5.8-year simple payback, an 8-year discounted payback, a 20.1% internal rate of return and a ₹46.4 million NPV. The study shows that annual net zero is technically and economically plausible for the selected archetype, but robust delivery requires explicit PV margin, commissioning, plug-load governance and post-occupancy verification.

Keywords: net-zero energy building; sustainable construction; hot-dry climate; ECSBC 2024; rooftop photovoltaics; embodied carbon; life-cycle cost; uncertainty analysis; Jaipur

How to Cite this Paper

Agrawal, H. K., Yadav, A. & Luhania, A. (2026). Integrated Net-Zero Energy Design for Hot-Dry Institutional Buildings: A Scenario-Based Energy, Carbon and Cost Assessment for Jaipur, India. International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management, <i>02</i>(7), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i7.224

Agrawal, Hemant, et al.. "Integrated Net-Zero Energy Design for Hot-Dry Institutional Buildings: A Scenario-Based Energy, Carbon and Cost Assessment for Jaipur, India." International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management, vol. 02, no. 7, 2026, pp. 1-9. doi:https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i7.224.

Agrawal, Hemant,Anshika Yadav, and Ashutosh Luhania. "Integrated Net-Zero Energy Design for Hot-Dry Institutional Buildings: A Scenario-Based Energy, Carbon and Cost Assessment for Jaipur, India." International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management 02, no. 7 (2026): 1-9. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i7.224.

Search & Index

References

[1] United Nations Environment Programme, Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025: Not Just Another Brick in the Wall, UNEP, Nairobi, 2025. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/global-status-report-buildings-and-construction-20242025

[2] International Energy Agency, Buildings—Energy System, findings updated June 2026, IEA, Paris. https://www.iea.org/energy-system/buildings

[3] IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report, Cambridge University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926

[4] P. Torcellini, S. Pless, M. Deru, D. Crawley, Zero Energy Buildings: A Critical Look at the Definition, NREL/CP-550-39833, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2006. https://www.osti.gov/biblio/883663

[5] A.J. Marszal, P. Heiselberg, J.S. Bourrelle, E. Musall, K. Voss, I. Sartori, A. Napolitano, Zero Energy Building—A review of definitions and calculation methodologies, Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 971–979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.12.022

[6] I. Sartori, A. Napolitano, K. Voss, Net zero energy buildings: A consistent definition framework, Energy and Buildings 48 (2012) 220–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.01.032

[7] U.S. Department of Energy and National Institute of Building Sciences, A Common Definition for Zero Energy Buildings, U.S. DOE, 2015. https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/09/f26/A%20Common%20Definition%20for%20Zero%20Energy%20Buildings.pdf

[8] ISO, ISO 52000-1:2017, Energy performance of buildings—Overarching EPB assessment—Part 1: General framework and procedures, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 2017.

[9] S. Deng, R.Z. Wang, Y.J. Dai, How to evaluate performance of net zero energy building—A literature research, Energy 71 (2014) 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.05.007

[10] M. Kapsalaki, V. Leal, M. Santamouris, A methodology for economic efficient design of Net Zero Energy Buildings, Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 765–778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.10.022

Ethical Compliance & Review Process

•All submissions are screened under plagiarism detection.
•Review follows editorial policy.
•Authors retain copyright.
•Peer Review Type: Double-Blind Peer Review
•Published on: Jul 25 2026

CCBYNC

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You are free to share and adapt this work for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution.

View License

Back to Volume 02, Issue 7 View All Issues Next Article

← Previous Article

Integrated Geospatial Analysis of Watershed Morphometry, Terrain Characteristics, and Hydro-Geomorphological Processes in the Brahmani Watershed, Western India

Next Article →

Intent-Aware Adaptive Trust Retrieval-Augmented Generation (IAT-RAG): A Framework for Trustworthy Document Question Answering Using Open-Source Large Language Models